Airbus Space Systems (part of Airbus Defence and Space, itself part of the global major aerospace group Airbus) announced on Monday that it had been selected by France’s space agency, the National Centre for Space Studies (much better known by its French abbreviation, CNES), to build two new generation high-frequency microwave radiometers (which measure the intensity of radiant energy). These instruments will form part of the French contribution to the international Atmosphere Observing System (AOS).

AOS is a collaboration between the US, Canada, Japan, Italy and France (the countries involved being listed in the order given by Airbus). The lead agency is the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa).

The objective of AOS is to optimise the study of the connections between aerosols, clouds, atmospheric convection and precipitation. The programme involved a constellation of six satellites, plus suborbital (airborne) and ground platforms. AOS will provide essential data for the improvement of weather, air quality, and climate forecasts.

“Working on climate missions is something that really matters to us at Airbus,” affirmed Airbus Space Systems head Alain Fauré. “Just a few weeks after launch of the EarthCARE mission with Europe and Japan, it is an honour to be part of another climate mission, this time Nasa-led with international partners. I would like to thank the French Space Agency, CNES, for supporting European industry: with this contract Airbus is further reinforcing its role in helping better understand clouds, weather and climate.”

The French contribution to AOS is designated C2OMODO, which stands for Convective Core Observations through MicrOwave Derivatives in the trOpics. C2OMODO will, for the first time, deliver a global view of the vertical air motions in, and precipitation properties of, convective storms. This, in turn, will increase the comprehension of how intense precipitation happens, and will give a real-world benchmark for how these processes have been represented in computer weather models. This will result in better global weather forecasts.

One of the two Airbus-developed C2OMODO radiometers will be installed on the US-led satellite, AOS-Storm, while the other will be installed on the Japan-led Precipitation Measuring Mission satellite. Both satellites will be in inclined orbits and they will work in tandem.